A Palestinian bus driver has been found hanged inside his vehicle at a depot in Jerusalem, with the Israeli police saying the man committed suicide, while the driver’s family claim he was lynched by Israelis.

The bus driver, who has been identified as Youssef al-Ramouni
from al-Tur in East Jerusalem, worked for Egged, an Israeli
company.

Other drivers were, according to the Ma'an news agency, alarmed
to see al-Ramouni's bus parked in the terminal late on Sunday
evening, when it was supposed to be out on its route. They
entered the vehicle and discovered al-Ramouni's body hanging from
a steel bar.

Israeli police say a preliminary investigation showed no sign of
an assault.

"The bus driver committed suicide, there is no other
indication other than it was a suicide case," said police
spokesman Micky Rosenfeld, according to Reuters.

Al-Ramouni’s relatives are not convinced, arguing that Youssef,
the father of two young children, could not possibly have killed
himself.

"I saw the body last night and I saw bruises and marks that
he was beaten up," al-Ramouni's brother Louy told Reuters.
"There were marks of fingers on the body and also on his back
there was a bruise, as if he was hit by a hard object."

The family supports their allegations with pictures of the dead
body, which are currently circulating online.

The body is now in Abu Kabir Forensic Insitutute in Tel Aviv,
where it was transferred for an autopsy. Al-Ramouni's family
wants a Palestinian pathologist to be present, but it’s not yet
clear if this will be allowed.

Al-Ramouni’s colleagues have, according to the Haaretz, said that
Palestinian bus drivers have long been targets of attacks by
Israelis.

Rumors of the driver’s death in a possible assault spread across
the Palestinian media, sparking riots in several neighborhoods of
Jerusalem - At-tur, Ras al-Amud and Abu Dis, the Times of Israel
reported. Palestinian youths hurled stones and firebombs at
police, who responded with stun grenades and tear gas.

The Israeli media have meanwhile reported that a Jewish man, aged
32, was stabbed with a screwdriver also on Sunday evening. The
man managed to make it to a police station and was eventually
taken to hospital.

Tensions have lately been high between Israelis and Palestinians,
primarily over disrupted access to a landmark place of worship,
the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.

Over the past month, multiple attacks launched by both sides have
seen five Israelis and a dozen Palestinians killed.
Among the latest victims is a Palestinian man, who was shot dead
last Tuesday by the Israel Defense Forces in the West Bank. The
day before, an Israeli woman and an IDF soldier were stabbed,
allegedly by Palestinians, in two separate attacks.